Possibly the tribunals were an addition due to the Holconii. The
corridor under the gallery, however, must have been built in the place
of an earlier corridor, for the piers on the outside rest on
foundations similar in character to the oldest parts of the building.
As these piers served no other purpose than to sustain the passage
opening into the section of seats above the corridor, this must have
formed a part of the original plan.
The statues of both the Holconii probably stood in niches in the wall
at the back of the stage. Holconius Rufus was further honored with a
monument of some sort in the cavea. The lowest seat of the media cavea
had at the middle, directly opposite the stage, a double width for a
distance of about five feet, gained by removing a portion of the next
seat above. Here was an inscription in bronze letters: _M. Holconio M.
f. Rufo, II. v. i. d. quinquiens, iter[um] quinq[uennali], trib[uno]
mil[itum] a p[opulo], flamini Aug[usti], patr[ono] colo[niae],
d[ecurionum] d[ecreto]_,--'[Dedicated] in accordance with a decree of
the city council to Marcus Holconius Rufus the son of Marcus, five
times duumvir with judiciary authority, twice quinquennial duumvir,
military tribune by the choice of the people, priest of Augustus, and
patron of the colony.' The object placed here was of bronze, and was
made secure by fastenings set in twelve holes; what it was is
altogether uncertain. The ancients had the custom of conferring
lasting honor upon a deserving man after death by placing in the
theatre a seat inscribed with his name. We should be glad to believe
that a 'seat of double width,' _bisellium_, the use of which was
allowed to members of the city council, was placed here, but the
arrangement of the twelve holes is difficult to reconcile with this
explanation.
The architect employed by the Holconii, a freedman, was not honored
with a statue, but his name was transmitted to posterity in an
inscription placed in the outer wall near the east entrance to the
orchestra: _M. Artorius M. l[ibertus] Primus, architectus_,--'Marcus
Artorius Primus, freedman of Marcus, architect.'
The plan of the Theatre could not have been taken from a Roman model;
it conforms, as we should have expected, to the Greek type. In the
Roman theatre the orchestra was in the form of a semicircle, of which
the diameter was represented by the stage. In Greek theatres, on the
contrary, the stage according to Vitruvius was laid out on one side of
a square inscribed in the circle of the orchestra; the orchestra, as
shown by existing remains, in most cases was either a complete circle
or was so extended by tangents at the sides that a circle could be
inscribed in it. The latter is the case in our Theatre, of which the
orchestra has essentially the same form as that of the theatre of
Dionysus at Athens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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